Leading academics will be addressing a free public event at Plymouth University on the global impact of wartime sexual violence

Leading academics will be debating the global impact of
wartime sexual violence during a high profile event at Plymouth University.

The free public debate on Wednesday 4 March will include
discussion about the ongoing plight of the men, women and children affected by
such violence, and current international humanitarian efforts to help them.

It will also focus on the Preventing
Sexual Violence Initiative (PSVI), launched in 2012 by the British Government
and Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, and reflect
on pledges made during its Global Summit to End Sexual
Violence in Conflict, which was hosted by the UK in June 2014.

The Plymouth debate has been
organised by Dr Christian Emery, Lecturer in International Relations at
Plymouth University, and the assembled panel of academics will comprise Dr Paul
Kirby, Lecturer in International Security at the University of Sussex, Dr Laura Mcleod, Lecturer in Politics at the
University of Manchester, and Dr Victoria Basham, Senior Lecturer in
International Relations at the University of Exeter.

Through presentations and a question and
answer session, they will reflect on the
progress made in recent years in preventing sexual violence in conflict and
the representation of sexual violence in conflict in popular culture.

They will interrogate
policies linked to the PSVI – which aims
to address the culture of impunity that exists
for crimes of sexual violence in conflict, increase the number of perpetrators
held to account, and ensure better support for survivors – and address its
relationship to wider questions of gender equality and humanitarian
intervention.

Dr Emery said:

“This is
a challenging issue but one that will have increasing importance for the UK,
both in terms of developing an ethical foreign policy and overseas
humanitarian efforts, but also the ongoing impact at
home resulting from refugees coming from war-torn and post-conflict
nations.

“The global summit did go some way towards mobilising
greater political will to do more to prevent sexual violence in conflict zones
and bring perpetrators to justice. At the same time the public
are becoming aware of this issue through rolling news and
films such as Unwatchable, The Land of Blood and Honey, and Grbavica. Some of these representations are problematic,
however, and at stake therefore is not just how we deal with sexual
violence in post-conflict contexts but how we generate knowledge about it in
the first place and what that reveals about attitudes to gender equality at
home and abroad."